Maury County budget panel reallocates property-tax "pennies" to fund teacher pay increase, adds $1.4M for Columbia library

The Maury County budget committee voted Wednesday to reallocate portions of property-tax revenue to increase school funding and to add $1.4 million for Columbia Library renovations.

Commissioner Sumners, chairing the budget discussion, presented a plan that would move 10.3 “pennies” from the county’s debt-service capacity toward the school general fund (fund 141) to cover the increase requested by the school board. The plan also proposes moving 2 pennies to the highway fund (fund 131), leaving 3 pennies in the capital projects fund (fund 189), and setting aside capacity in the debt-service fund (fund 151) for potential future borrowing for projects including the animal shelter expansion, the Mount Pleasant library and courthouse work.

The committee voted to approve the funding reallocation and later approved a separate amendment to add $1,400,000 to the capital projects proposal for Columbia Library renovations to be paid from the general fund balance (fund 101). Both measures passed on voice votes; the transcript records no…